Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication refers to communication between electronic devices in the literal sense of the word. In a broad sense, M2M communication means wired or wireless communication between electronic devices or communication between devices controlled by people. Recently, M2M communication has come to refer to wireless communication between electronic devices, performed without human intervention.
In the early 1990s when the concept of M2M communication was first introduced, M2M communication was recognized as remote control, telematics, or so and the market derived therefrom was very limited. However, as M2M communication has rapidly developed in the past few years, market therefor has vastly expanded, attracting worldwide attention. In particular, M2M communication has exerted an important influence on the field of fleet management in a Point-Of-Sales (POS) system and a security related application market, remote monitoring of machines or facilities, and smart meter for measuring operating time of mechanical construction equipment and automatically measuring consumption of heat or electricity. In the future, M2M communication will be extended to various applications in association with existing mobile communication, wireless high-speed Internet, and low-output communication solutions such as Wi-Fi and ZigBee. That is, M2M communication will evolve from Business-to-Business (B2B) applications to Business-to-Consumer (B2C) applications.
In M2M communication, all machines equipped with a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card are able to transmit and receive data so that they can be remotely managed and controlled. For example, M2M communication technology can be used for numerous machines and equipment such as automobiles, trucks, trains, shipping containers, vending machines, tankers, etc., and the variety of applications thereof will continue to expand.
Conventionally, mobile stations were managed individually for one-to-one communication between a Base Station (BS) and a Mobile Station (MS). Assuming that numerous M2M devices communicate with the BS through one-to-one communication, network overload is likely to occur due to signaling generated between each of the M2M devices and the BS. As M2M communication rapidly spreads and expands, an overhead problem may occur due to communication between the M2M devices or between the M2M devices and BSs.
Meanwhile, there is the case in which the BS needs to transmit multicast data to the M2M devices. However, a method for reliably transmitting multicast data to the M2M devices has not been specifically proposed up to now.